Apologize
by kristy267
Summary: [oneshot] After her conversation with Stefan, Caroline feels that she owes Klaus an apology for using him yet again. She's even got a speech prepared, but will it go as smoothly as she planned? (Set after 4x09)


_**Disclaimer**: I do not own The Vampire Diaries (because if I did, there would so be a Hayley/Klaus/Care love triangle going on!)_

Caroline felt it was best to give Stefan some time alone. It had been a while since she saw him that mad. She considered driving home, but found herself parked outside Klaus's home instead. This, of all places, was the last place she expected to end up. Caroline sat in her car for a long while.

She knew why she'd come. It was to apologize. Several times now, she'd used Klaus's feelings for her as a means to distract him. In the beginning she didn't see anything wrong with it. This was Klaus, after all. But after the time they spent actually enjoying one another company at the pageant... Caroline found she was feeling different towards him. She felt toying with him was wrong.

Finally talking herself into it, Caroline got out of her car and marched up to the door. She raised her hand to knock - or should she ring the doorbell? - but before she could do either, the door opened.

"Did Stefan send you to distract me again?" Klaus asked. That wasn't malice she heard in his accent laced voice.

"No. I'm not here for that." A half-smile graced his face.

Caroline refused to think of him as handsome. It was just a face, a face she'd been seeing for months. This was Klaus. Klaus who had terrorized her and her friends time after time. He'd used Elena as his on personal hybrid breeding machine, he was Tyler's former sire, and he'd done a number of other down right terrible things. Caroline was sure, if she kept reminding herself of all the bad he'd done, she wouldn't fall victim to that face and accent.

Klaus stepped out-of-the-way, invited her in. They walked into the parlor and he poured her a drink. She almost accepted, she almost sat down. But then she remembered why she'd come. Caroline took the glass, but promptly set it down before even taking a drink. She faced Klaus and mentally ran through what she had come here to say.

"Let me guess," Klaus said before she could speak. "You've prepared a speech?"

In fact, she had. "Is that a problem?" She'd gone over it the car about a hundred times and three more since stepping into the house. It was a short speech, but was simply the basics of what she felt needed to be said.

Klaus shook his head. "Not at all, love." He sat down and leaned back casually in his seat. If she didn't know any better, Caroline would have thought he was settling in for a long night of her rambling.

"I came to apologize," Caroline began. "Using your feelings for me against you was wrong. I wouldn't want anyone doing that to me and I've just realized this. For the record, every time I had good intentions. It was never to get back at you exactly, it was for my friends - "

"Caroline. Caroline, please - stop," Klaus interpreted. "There's no need to apologize."

She tilted her head. "There isn't?"

"No. I don't blame you for trying to help your friends."

Caroline wasn't sure if she should buy this or not. Could he really be this accepting and cool with it? Doubtful. But, she'd come to say what she had. Her conscience was clean and she could get going now.

"Alright then," She started for the door. "I'll show myself out."

"Wait," Klaus said. He stood up quickly and grabbed her by the arm. For someone who was 1,000 years old, his grip was gentle on her arm. Klaus gave her a small tug and Caroline found herself with very little breathing room. Well not that she was breathing at this point. "You didn't finish your drink."

They were dangerously close. Closer than they'd ever been.

It was then that all the bad he'd done since rolling into town - the Alaric body snatch included - was suddenly overshadowed by the good he'd done by her. Her mind called up their conversation as she lay dying and how he'd been nice to her because it was her birthday. The time they'd spent together at the party his dreadful family hosted... when he came to her rescue at the school... the times she talked with him purely to blind side him... the way he always seemed to smile around her... dancing with him one two occasions... their "date" not so long ago...

"What is it about you?" She whispered, meeting his eyes.

"I could ask you the same thing, love." His voice was equally as soft. Another beat passed and then Caroline did something she never imagined herself doing.

She kissed him.

And she even enjoyed it.

Well, right up until her cell phone had to shatter the moment.

Caroline pulled away from Klaus suddenly. She took several steps backwards, a hand pressed over her mouth. She couldn't believe she'd done that. Caroline had spent many occasions ragging on Elena about having feelings for Damon. And here Caroline was, lip locking with the devil himself.

"Car - "

She held up a finger to silence him. Without breaking eye contact, Caroline brought her cell to her ear. "Hello?" It was Tyler. Once he began to talk, she tore her eyes off of the Original and turned away. She listened intently as Tyler rattled on and told her the latest disaster. "I'll be right there, Ty." Caroline hung up the phone.

She stood perfectly still for a long moment. Klaus had heard Tyler's end of the conversation. He knew what she was thinking, he just didn't know how she'd handle it.

Caroline turned around to face him very slowly. Tears brimmed her eyes. "You - you killed his mother." It wasn't a question. She wasn't asking if he'd done it. She already knew he had.

"You know what he was planning, Caroline."

She slapped him. "But no one deserves that, Klaus! Carol was all he had left!"

Klaus's jaw tightened, but he said nothing and did nothing. Not that she had expected him to. Caroline turned on her heel just as the tears began to spill from her eyes. She wasn't crying for Tyler or Ms. Lockwood. No she was crying because she was just realizing whatever this thing she and Klaus had, it would never work. Sometimes love just isn't enough.

Caroline paused at the door. "It's always one step forward and two steps back with us," She said softly.

"It doesn't have to be that way."

She heard him move up behind her. Caroline thought he might reach out and touch her again, but he didn't. The tension was so thick it was nearly smothering.

A part of her wished he was right. She wished he could change. But when you've been a monster as long as he has... the monster isn't just a side effect. It's who is he. And it's who he'll always be.

Caroline opened the door. "Yes. It does." And just as quickly as she'd dropped into his embrace, she was gone again.

Loving a man like Klaus was like trying to catch smoke - it wasn't possible. The smoke would just get lost between her fingers every time. Caroline couldn't deny there was a place in her heart for the Original... but that place was only a crack now. An unrepairable, undeniable, unexplored crack on the heart he would d never know and call his own.


End file.
